Chapter 3: The Strange Youth

"Sob, sob, sob... this baked potato is just too delicious!"

The girl ate while chewing and crying, looking exactly as if she hadn't eaten anything for eight hundred years.

"Don't be in such a rush, eat slowly, I have another one here!"

With a 'ding', Ruan Mian saw her Light Brain receive a transfer of twenty Interstellar Coins.

It was quite obvious who had transferred it.

"Um, I want to buy one too!"

Only after paying did she realize she hadn't even asked if she was selling!

Drooping her brows and eyes, she looked at her pleadingly, "Um, are you still selling that potato of yours?"

"I am, why wouldn't I!"

Forty Interstellar Coins easily in hand, what a great potato!

Ruan Mian got up and brought it over to her; she took it impatiently, wishing she could swallow it into her mouth immediately.

"Umm, how can there be such delicious food!!!"

Without drinking a single drop of water, the girl swallowed both baked potatoes whole, one bite after another; Ruan Mian was left in awe, and the key was that she didn't even choke.

Interstellar people are truly impressive.

"My name is Ji Jialin, may I ask what to call you?" The girl, now full and satisfied, smiled sweetly, looking like she wanted to get on good terms with her.

The intention was far too obvious.

But this was exactly what Ruan Mian wanted; she had just arrived and was in need of a stable customer base!

"Ruan Mian, 'Ruan' as in the 'yuan' with the 'er' radical, 'Mian' as in the kapok flower."

"Your name is so pretty! Kapok flower, what kind of flower is that? Is it beautiful?"

Ruan Mian forgot that this world had no plants; they didn't know what a kapok flower looked like, and one could say they didn't know many plants at all.

"If there's a chance, I'll show you."

Whether to see the flower or not wasn't important at all; what was important was, "Then Ruan Mian, are you selling this potato tomorrow too?"

And so the business came knocking, "Yes, if you want to eat it, come by around this time tomorrow, and I'll make it for you."

"Really?!"

With a 'ding', Ruan Mian's Light Brain sounded with another transfer notification.

Ji Jialin had transferred one hundred Interstellar Coins to her.

"Then it's a deal, this is your deposit, I'll come find you again tomorrow!"

After making the appointment with her, she left in high spirits.

Ruan Mian looked at the one hundred and forty Interstellar Coins that had appeared in her account balance and fell into deep thought.

Earning money in the Interstellar seems not that difficult after all...

Never mind, let's use this money to improve life a bit first; the most basic pots, bowls, basins, and ladles should be there, plus seasonings—firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea—none of them exist.

After searching the mall on the Light Brain, there was nothing related to plants, and the only thing available was salt.

At least it could provide some flavor, so she placed the order decisively.

Pots, bowls, basins, and ladles were only available in metal, and these things weren't very expensive.

But she wanted to buy a few chairs, and that was where she found herself strapped for cash.

Only twenty remained out of the one hundred and forty, while the cheapest chair cost two hundred, and it was unclear what material it was made of, though it looked like some plastic thing.

Can't afford it, can't afford it!

Returning to the Personal Backpack, the items just traded could be extracted directly, saving the middleman courier fees and making the transaction incredibly convenient and fast.

Thinking of this, Ruan Mian had an idea.

She channeled her ability again to grow a potato and made it into a baked potato.

Opening the personal page of the Light Brain, she selected 'sell product', scanned the potato on the table, and in the next second, the potato was in the product column above.

【Product for sale: Baked potato, food category, can be used as a staple, fragrant, soft, and delicious, twenty each, you can't go wrong buying this!】

She uploaded it with excitement and then kept refreshing.

After five minutes passed, her baked potato still had no takers.

Going from high spirits and full of hope to having that hope dashed only took five minutes.

Buying things on the Light Brain isn't as simple as she thought!

Forget it.

Ruan Mian turned off the Light Brain and ignored it for now; she urgently needed chairs, she couldn't have guests standing by the door gnawing on food like today!

With so much trash around, she didn't believe she couldn't find usable junk.

As the saying goes, work with your own hands for plenty of food and clothing!

It was also a chance to get familiar with the surrounding environment.

After walking around the area, she really did find quite a few good things that could be used.

A very flat iron plate, something very flat made of an unknown material, and also long, straight sticks.

They weren't wood, and she didn't know what material they were.

The Interstellar is truly magical; the junkyard is also a good place.

There was also a piece of red fabric buried inside; the material looked decent, perhaps it could even be used to patch the wall.

Grabbing it with one hand, she reached out to dig with the other.

At this very moment, a sudden change occurred; the thing under her hand actually moved, her foot lost its footing, her body lunged forward, and just as she was about to fall, her body was suddenly pulled by a great force.

Between the spinning world, the off-balance Ruan Mian grabbed forward instinctively, and with one pull, she fell down together with the person in front of her.

Thump—a loud sound as they crashed down.

Ruan Mian, who had tightly shut her eyes, did not feel the pain she had imagined; in fact, the texture beneath her hands felt somewhat soft.

Her fingers scratched unconsciously, but the sensation was not right.

"Have you grabbed enough?"

The abruptly sounding male voice gave Ruan Mian a start; she immediately widened her eyes and looked in disbelief at the person in front of her—or rather, beneath her.

The man looked quite young, perhaps in his teens or twenties, with a head of gray-white hair, looking like a youth who had walked out of an anime.

His features were handsome and sharp, though his expression was not very pleasant—gloomy, misanthropic, as if he wished to tear this broken world to shreds the very next second.

Where on earth did this youth suddenly pop out from!

"Hey, aren't you getting up?" The gloomy youth's voice was also indescribably cold.

Ruan Mian was just about to scramble up, and before she could even utter an explanation, her entire body was flipped in the other direction by a force; now she was the one underneath, looking up at the youth before her.

*Swish*—a chill traveled from the nape of her neck as a sharp blade pressed against her.

"Y-you, what are you trying to do!" Ruan Mian really wanted to cry but had no tears; who would have thought she'd run into a mad dog in a trash heap!

With no grudges or enmity between them, this man was either after her money or her body.

"I'm very poor, I live around here, you should be able to tell that I'm poor, so what is it you want to do to me?"

Even the tail end of her words carried a hint of seduction.

Who knew that upon hearing her words, not only did the youth not stop, but the blade at her neck pressed even closer.

A stinging, burning sensation arrived, and she hissed, gasping in pain.

Ruan Mian could feel warm blood flowing out from the wound.

Only one thought remained in her mind: she had finally been reborn once, was she really going to lose her life right here?

The next second, a warm sensation covered her wound, lips kissed away the crimson blood, and as a wet, hot tongue swept across it, a wave of numbness spread through half her body...